Step-by-step instructions to make NEC ND-1300A Region Free?

I've downloaded firmware v1.08 for my NEC ND-1300A from Herrie's NEC firmware page, but I'm not 100% sure what it will do for me. I'd like to make the drive region-free, as I've got a couple DVD's that are not Region 1. I haven't found any procedure for doing this and wonder if someone could give me easy-to-follow instructions for my Win2K computer. Thanks, Tim

I suggest you download the Auto reset window-flasher. Then simply click the flasher, and then click the flash button. Wait until its done and your player should be region free. CAUTION: If your flash is unsuccessfull the player might become useless and even if the flash is successfull ALL warranties will cease. I recommend you use the program "region free" instad.

Thanks for the reply, brynolf. I'm not really clear on your post. Is the Auto reset window-flasher a program that restores the factory defaults on the drive so you can put a DVD in and then select the detected region as if it's the first time the drive is used? Then you just re-run the reset flasher whenever you've used up the allowed number of changes? Do you consider the "region free" program to be more fail-safe? Where can I find these programs and is there a different one for each drive?

From Herrie's homepage: ---- Auto Reset: For people that watch DVD's from other regions on a regular base. ---- It means that the drive auto-switches region whenever a different region dvd is inserted. I can't tell for sure since I haven't used it. DVD Region-Free is an app that makes the dvd-programs play multiregion dvds without any hardware modification. It can be found at Another (but perhaps tiresome in the long run) solution is to rip the dvd to the harddrive using dvd decrypter and then watching it from there.

I downloaded the Herrie's 1.08 firmware last night, but I wasn't sure if I needed to update the drive to NEC's 1.08 firmware before "patching" it with Herrie's firmware, or if Herrie's firmware was all I needed to flash. I guess what I'm wondering is if Herrie's 1.08 is a patch to NEC's 1.08 or if it's the whole enchilada? Thanks for the link to DVDIdle. This might just be the ticket for ease-of-use and portability (meaning being able to use it on future drives I might pop into my machine without having to flash them to RPC1 as well). Have you tried it and are you happy with it?